Imvelo: Integrating technology across the value chain

The Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 is the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology. Large-scale machine-to-machine communication (M2M) and the internet of things (IoT) are integrated for increased automation, improved communication and self-monitoring, and production of smart machines that can analyze and diagnose issues without the need for human intervention. Imvelo is one such company based in Australia, leveraging the fourth industrial revolution and bringing a significant change in the Australian mining industry. We had a few words with Dr. Sharna Glover, CEO and Co-Founder of Imvelo Pty. Ltd. Here are a few excerpts.

Explain your services in brief.

Founded on the conviction that it’s digital transformation time for the resources industry, Imvelo is marrying deep expertise with smart robotics and automation innovation to help that happen. Imvelo works with companies to deliver their business transformation, enabled by an ecosystem of technology partners. It is uniquely placed in the field of Industry 4.0 technologies and their application to resource industries. The company brings a track record for executing technology transformations in the field.

The company maintains a value chain automation blueprint that integrates technologies to create the transformation agenda. The ability to both create the case for change at the Board level, and then work side-by-side to execute technology transformation in the field is a core strength of Imvelo.

Imvelo maintains extensive scans of the market for the best technology providers in automation, sensing, and data platforms. The company is extensively networked throughout Europe and America, enabling it to bring to the table the best technology ecosystem partners.

Funding models that harness venture capital, private equity, and industry consortiums offer companies the backing to successfully execute their technology transformation agenda.

What are some of the critical issues addressed by your solutions?

Imvelo focusses on the execution of technologies that will address the need for step-change improvements in safety and productivity for resource industries.

As an example, in Australia, the multi-factor productivity of the mining industry has declined 25% since 2002, and labour productivity significantly lags the broader Australian economy. In comparison to mining, global manufacturing has accelerated labour productivity four times faster, through the application of technology and deployment of digital skills. While there have been advances in safety there is room for further improvement.

We work in the mining, oil and gas, space agriculture, and forestry sectors. Imvelo is a boots-on-the-ground technology company and works in operations to digitally and robotically integrate their asset to create automated value chains.

Imvelo believes in sharing and cooperation to achieve better and faster results. How do you manage to maintain the quality of your services?

While Imvelo is a young company it has focused on the establishment of its business systems. This is the fabric of Imvelo as an ecosystem company. Our business systems, especially our workflow management, allow us to consistently and reproducibly deliver the same quality of our service.

Strategic partnering is about aligning passion and capability to solve shared problems. Leveraging our expertise we work closely with our partners to align skills with opportunities.

How do you deliver value to your customers?

Imvelo is a passionate advocate of organizational change management and incorporates it within the development phase of all technology programs. Rarely does the actual technology itself fail. What does fail is engaging the workforce on the transition of their role and that new work comes with an uplift from technology. Imvelo is a holistic technology execution company and applies tools and capabilities throughout the program to support the workforce with the transition. This is a critical component of customer experience and getting the value from technology.

Value drivers:

Integration across the value chain reduces the number and complexity of applications.

Interoperability reduces the cost of integration and enables more rapid innovation.

Design thinking enables processes to be redesigned as systems of work which drives productivity.

Cross-industry transfer provides access to more solutions enabling adaption rather than invention.

How do you deal with the “never-ending change” in digital transformation?

Technology is moving at a rapid pace and Imvelo stays abreast of the change through its extensive participation on advisory boards of research and development organizations. This approach provides Imvelo with early insights into technology shifts and access to global technology networks. In addition, Imvelo focuses on open interoperability in its technology program deployments for clients. This ensures that client operations are not locked out of being able to uptake new technology with speed and avoids regret investment.

What are the important factors that contribute majorly to the success of your business?

Imvelo is uniquely positioned with a service offering of providing both the innovation business transformational planning as well as the execution of the technology program in the field. We have capabilities in techno-economic modeling across the supply chain that allows for innovation to be assessed as a key growth lever for a company. We back our transformation plans by executing the projects side-by-side with the client.

What is your vision for integrating these technologies for the benefit of your clients?

Our vision is a progressive integration of value-adding technology based on open interoperable standards. Building full system solutions that are sustainable and can be continuously innovated. We have a blueprint for the full stack of technology requirements and identified partners across the mining value chain. This includes sensors, communication, automation, control systems, and AI.

We are working with clients who have ambitious business transformation agendas and who want to accelerate that journey by building internal talent and partnering with world-class technology companies from across industries. We believe strongly in the value of cross-industry collaboration so we have clients in forestry, mining, oil and gas, and technology services.

About the CEO/Founder

Dr. Sharna Glover is the Co-founder of Imvelo Pty. Ltd and is the company CEO. She is an experienced executive leader with a twenty-year track record of successfully leading step-change technology programs. The ability to create connections through successful technology partnerships across the full ecosystem is her specialty. Sharna holds a first-class double degree in Chemical Engineering and Science, as well as a Ph.D. in Engineering. She is an Advisory Board member of the Australian Space Agency, a Non-Executive Director of the Robotics Australia Group, and an Advisory Board Member of the SmartSAT CRC.

Imvelo means ‘ecosystem’ in Zulu – an African language.

website-www.imvelo.ai                                                     CEO’s Email Address- Sharna.glover@imvelo.ai

“We draw together the people who understand autonomy, perception, localisation, communications, the market, and the like. It is an ecosystem,” Sharna Glover, CEO, Imvelo